1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to transmission of information, and in particular but not exclusively, relates to the transmission of audio and/or video information over communication channels that simulate television broadcast channels.
2. Background Information
The Internet is a popular tool for viewing many different types of information. For example, commercial or government web sites provide web pages that contain information on a multitude of subjects that may be of interest to users viewing the web pages. The information available in the web pages can be in many different formats, such as text, graphics, video, and audio.
In addition to commercial or government web sites, individuals can also create “personal” web sites and web pages on the Internet. For example, a family can create a “Jones Family” web site having a uniform resource locator (URL) address or domain name of Jones-Family.com. In this personal web site, information about the Jones family can be provided. Examples of such information can include family history, birthday or other special event announcements, photographs of family members, video clips from a recent trip, audio clips of a child's first words, etc.
To make such information available on the personal web site, the personal web site first has to be established/created (e.g., through a web-hosting party, Internet service provider, etc.). Next, the information to be made available via the personal web site is uploaded for storage to a server that hosts the personal web site. Once the personal web site is functional, third parties may access the personal web site through the Internet to view the information displayed in the web pages.
Although personal web sites and/or other web sites have a variety of available information, they can be clumsy or difficult to access/use at times. This can be particularly true with regards to users who are not computer-savvy. The casual or unfamiliar Internet user can often be easily overwhelmed, discouraged, or confused by having to enter URL addresses to locate the specific web site, click multiple hypertext links to view a photograph or other item of information, wait while an audio or video file downloads, struggle with slow or unreliable computer connections to the Internet, etc.
Accordingly, improvements are needed in the manner in which information is provided to end users.